


A Butterfly's Wings

by Ink_Knight



Series: Stormbringers [2]
Category: Life Is Strange (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Vampire, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-13
Updated: 2019-09-17
Packaged: 2020-10-17 11:41:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,844
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20620448
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ink_Knight/pseuds/Ink_Knight
Summary: Victoria's night is disrupted, Max tries to figure out what's happening to her.





	1. Victoria

It wasn’t unusual for The Chase Space to host evening events that ran late into the night, generally accepted that it was either a quirk of the artist or just the gallery taking advantage of Seattle’s already vibrant nightlife. Of course, it also made it far easier for the gallery owners to attend, no pesky daylight to send them scurrying for their darkened bedrooms. The family were Seattle elite, both among mortals and the Kindred. While Victoria hadn’t technically been one for more than a few months she felt a certain amusement over the obliviousness of the humans circling the gallery around her. After all, she’d been raised to eventually feel the Embrace; her birth family being distant cousins of this branch who had been happy to give her to the main family when she showed keen intelligence and leadership qualities as a child. Of course, her turning hadn’t been a foregone conclusion, she’d still had to earn it. But finally she had, and now she was Ventrue like any worthwhile Chase should be.

She was pulled from her musings by a commotion near the doors, frowning as she made her way in that direction. Her first thought upon seeing the girl in the doorway was that this could be some kind of impromptu performance piece, or someone trying to crash the party. The second seemed to be true, which wasn’t strange really, but when the girl looked up Victoria couldn’t hold in a gasp. Piercing blue eyes were bloodshot and wide, red tear tracks were stained onto her freckled cheeks; and the moment she saw Victoria she started staggering towards her.

“V-Vic, Victoria it’s coming we gotta go. We gotta go save them, please we have to go!” She started pleading as she came closer, reaching out for her the moment she could. The discrete security for the venue closed around the pair of them immediately, pulling the girl away while she trembled and shook her head. Then she flashed fang, thrashing in their grasp with a snarl.

“No! Let me go!” She wasn’t making much sense and Victoria was too shocked to do anything but let the guards usher them both away to her father’s private offices. Victor Chase wore a frown that made her flinch, as usually it was accompanied by some kind of lecture showing his disappointment. But he only glanced at her, before having the guards sit her down in the waiting room and take the girl into his inner office. Then he looked at her more clearly, head tilted to the side.

“Wait here Victoria, something tells me you’ll be needed.” And then he swept into the room after his ghouls, looking somber while the strange girl screamed about storms and fire and ‘the Bay’. The door closed, and Victoria was left alone with her thoughts.

It feels like hours before the door opened again and she was waved in. She felt inexplicably nervous as she stood, straightening her dress from the event downstairs and stepping inside her father’s office to see him behind his desk and the strange girl sitting in one of the chairs with her knees drawn up to her chest. Meeting her eyes her father gestured at the remaining seat in front of the desk and waited for her to sit before speaking.

“This is Maxine Caulfield, as far as I can tell she was recently Embraced by a renegade and is very clearly Malkavian. She came here because of the things she’s seen, and you were the closest thing she could pick out of the jumble of visions.” He explained, drawing her attention back to the slight girl trembling in the chair and refusing to meet anyone’s eyes. 

“She’s only been missing for a few days, so I’m having my people concoct a story to give to her family. One that will allow her to remain with us while we make sure she understands the rules. That part I am leaving to you Victoria. Take the time between now and the start of the next semester to teach her, it will test your knowledge and teach you some valuable lessons about our duties here in Seattle. Then she will accompany you to Blackwell, as Arcadia Bay seems to be the focal point of her visions.” Maxine flinched at the mention of Arcadia, eyes jerking up with a stifled whimper. Two sets of sharp brown eyes turned to her, both calculating and intense enough to make her shrink further in on herself. Then Victor Chase sighed and shook his head.

“She’s in no condition to answer any more questions or learn anything right now. Take her downstairs to the guest quarters please Victoria, she can stay there for the time being. And make sure someone brings her some blood. The last thing we need is for her to get any hungrier than she already is.” That was definitely a dismissal and Victoria nodded, standing and reaching for Maxine. She felt the brunette flinch under her hand, but ignored it to pull her to her feet and start guiding her out of the room.

“Yes Father.” Inside she was a mix of confused and fuming. A test? She’d earned her Embrace and he still wanted to test her by making her guide this hipster waif of a girl through what had happened to her? Of course she felt some sympathy, as it was obvious she had no clue what had happened to her or how to deal with her new abilities, but still. She was Victoria Chase! She was beyond this. Still, she held her tongue and did as she was told; as both her Sire and a major figure in Seattle’s night time community, her father’s word was law. So the pair of them left his offices, taking the private elevator to the basement level in silence, and Victoria showed her one of the sparsely decorated apartments they kept for visiting Kindred who needed a place to protect them from the day. On her way back to the party she got one of the security ghouls to raid their blood stash and deliver two bags to Maxine, assuming she’d be or get hungry enough to figure it out before sunrise.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A short one this time

Max, her name was Max. Never Maxine. Finally things were starting to feel clearer, to settle from the wash of storm and fire that had taken over her mind the moment she’d woken in that old warehouse. She’d been out getting pictures of the sunset, and the night sky, over the harbor. Maybe she’d stayed out later than she should have but that should have been fine, she’d done it before. Only this time something went wrong. Her memories were hazy, the clearest thing being the image of a blue butterfly that as her mind cleared she was pretty sure had been a tattoo. Either way she’d lost an entire day, waking alone after sunset the next night with tears of blood on her face and an absolute desperation to find someone. She hadn’t been able to pinpoint what, and had wandered the city all night before being forced into whatever shelter she could find as sunrise arrived and a strange exhaustion came with it. In her slumber the storm had returned, screaming rage as it destroyed her childhood home. She saw Chloe with another girl she somehow knew was called Rachel, and another named Victoria. When she woke she knew where she had to go, weak and hungry and desperate she’d found her way to the Chase Space and things had just gotten weirder from there.

Now she sat next to the two blood bags she’d been given, both instinctively drained before she could think about it. If she put the pieces together, well that was probably the reason she could think more clearly now. But she really didn’t want to think about what that meant. Still, now that she felt more like herself she couldn’t hold in that natural nosiness that got her into trouble more than once. Poking around she found some plain clothes that would be large on her but still likely far more comfortable than her now filthy jeans and hoodie, and a small bathroom with a shower included. Cleaning up felt good, helped her center herself further, and once she was changed she sat down to go through the messenger bag she’d thankfully managed to keep a hold on during all that chaos and confusion. 

Seeing that her camera and journal were still intact was calming, and she ran her hands over them both to further anchor herself. Going through the pictures she’d taken showed nothing of interest at first glance, but when she looked closer at the last one she saw a woman that struck something in her mind. She was blonde, maybe in her thirties, with tattoos across her arms. But one in particular jumped out at her, a blue butterfly on the back of one hand that was perfectly clear with the way she was grasping her opposite elbow. Feeling the storm rising again in her mind, trying to drag her under once more, she dropped the picture like it was on fire and pressed her hands over her eyes to try and regain that clarity. It took what felt like ages, breathing heavily and struggling to center herself against the things she was seeing, before she felt even halfway calm again. Then she turned to her journal.

_Dear Diary - I don’t know what’s happening to me. I took some gorgeous sunset and night skyline shots out by the harbor and then there was this woman. I only know she was there because of one of my photos, I can only actually remember the tattoo on her hand. A blue butterfly, it’s so vivid in my mind I would have assumed it was a living creature until I saw that photograph._

_After that it’s just the storm, and Arcadia Bay. I’ve tried not to think about Arcadia in the last couple of years, I always feel awful when I do. Because of Chloe. I stopped answering her texts, never wrote to her. I abandoned her and after a while it just felt like it had been too long to reach out again. But now, now something’s coming for Arcadia Bay. I don’t know how I know, other than the visions that I’ve been seeing since that night. And I shouldn’t believe them, it’s crazy. But I just know that something bad is going to happen. I have to get to Arcadia Bay, I have to save her and Rachel. Dog, how do I even know the name Rachel? The same way I knew to find Victoria I guess. The visions told me. They’re both important, just like Chloe. Something big is happening, and they all need my help to get through it. And if I don’t help them, I might just go crazy._

_So it’s back to Arcadia Bay. I just hope Chloe doesn’t hate me too much to listen when I try to explain._


End file.
